<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Illusion by coffecolors</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25606729">Illusion</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/coffecolors/pseuds/coffecolors'>coffecolors</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>EXO (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst and Drama, Arranged Marriage, Broken Promises, Forbidden Love, Implied/Referenced Cheating, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, M/M, Mentions of Sex, Opposites Attract, Partner Betrayal, Poverty, Troublemaker Chanyeol, Unhappy Ending, implied prostitution</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 07:08:55</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,000</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25606729</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/coffecolors/pseuds/coffecolors</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“Illusion is needed to disguise the emptiness within." ㅡArthur Erickson</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Byun Baekhyun/Park Chanyeol</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Challenge #5 — Opposites Attract</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Illusion</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Thank you Mod N for being so understanding and challenging us to write the unexpected. To all readers I hope you can enjoy this little mess&lt;3</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>On the coldest day of the year, a man is standing at the entrance of a building in New York, tightly holding today’s newspaper in his right hand. A shiny, silver promise ring is adorning one of his fingers.</p><p> </p><p>Heavy drops ruin his hair, clothes, newspaper, and life. If he stands there long enough he may attract the attention of the building's security guard and they may take him away from there because if he takes one more step he has no idea what he can do in the next few minutes, minutes that pass painfully slow and squeeze his heart relentlessly.</p><p> </p><p>Under the rain is Park Chanyeol, a rebel, an angry man going through life by inertia. A man who depends on scraps and charity to put food on his table and a place to sleep—a man trying to fill the holes in his life with casual sex with whatever person would cross his path and could pay, nameless people he couldn't count. Chanyeol, a poor orphan who was always getting into trouble and doing the most absurd favors for money, an attempt to survive the cruelty of New York City day after day.<br/><br/><br/></p><p>The emptiness he once felt was filled by an impeccable boy who promised to stay by his side and never leave him alone.</p><p> </p><p>He met Baekhyun at a party and only ten seconds of eye-contact were enough to have the two of them locked in a dirty bathroom stall, satiating their needs. There was no future there—simply a hook up like any other night, but their meetings began to become frequent. Eventually, Chanyeol took him home.</p><p> </p><p>Byun Baekhyun, the son of one of the most powerful CEOs in the country. A little jewel who saved him from having his life ruined by alcohol and dangerous drugs. Many times he believed that his use of hallucinogens had caused his mind to simply create this perfect human: sparkling eyes, fair skin, beautiful brown hair, and soft lips that promised wonders. There was no way someone as wonderful as Baekhyun could be comfortable in his neglected apartment, much less entangled in his faded sheets or even between a poor man’s arms.</p><p> </p><p>Baekhyun fed him, bought him new clothes, and helped fill his empty, miserable apartment with things he might need: a microwave, a refrigerator, a washing machine-while Chanyeol could give him nothing but unconditional love and devotion.</p><p> </p><p>He still involved himself in awful fights for Baekhyun when someone got too handsy on a disco, still consumed tiny doses of whatever was offered to him just to ease the anxiety—Baekhyun didn’t need to know.</p><p> </p><p>Amid heated nights where their bodies couldn’t get enough of each other, Baekhyun would tell Chanyeol how imperfectly perfect his life was. How his parents wanted him to marry a stranger, forcing him to create a new, fake life just for the public’s eye. He told him about his dreams of opening a bookstore on the outskirts of the city or being able to travel the world without worries. Baekhyun also told him about his parents, how they wouldn’t understand his love for Chanyeol or any other man, that they could never accept he was a free soul and couldn’t be tied forever.</p><p> </p><p>“But I want to be tied to you,” He said one night while putting a promise ring on his middle finger.</p><p> </p><p>When Chanyeol was head over heels for Baekhyun, he started getting more absent, to miss their little dates, to stop calling him or sending texts. </p><p> </p><p>Again, doubts began to eat him alive, what if Baekhyun was in his imagination? What if he never existed after all? The messages that remained on his phone and a t-shirt Baekhyun had left weeks ago assured him that perhaps he wasn’t crazy.</p><p> </p><p>He kept waiting until one day Baekhyun appeared on his door with a little backpack. His beloved promised he packed enough money for them to run away. They had to hide there only for a week until his parents stopped looking for him.</p><p> </p><p>“I love you” </p><p> </p><p>“And I love you, Chanyeol. We’re gonna get out of here”</p><p> </p><p>But then Baekhyun disappeared on Friday, his belongings nowhere to be found, only a note with a clear, reassuring message on it.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> "I'll be back soon. I love you" </em>
</p><p> </p><p>Still, Baekhyun didn't return for the whole day. Didn't return his calls, didn't reply to his insisting texts. However, he always acted like that every time he was with his parents, so perhaps Baekhyun decided to say goodbye to them? To confess his undying love for Chanyeol?</p><p> </p><p>He didn't know his whole life would turn upside down the next morning, the coldest Saturday he had ever experienced. He went to buy some groceries because if Baekhyun was going to return soon, he wanted to receive him with a delicious lunch, surprise him with his weird culinary skills.</p><p> </p><p>Chanyeol was buying some vegetables when he caught a glimpse of the newspaper the seller was reading, a big headline catching his attention.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> "Wedding bells for the Byun-Miller family" </em>
</p><p> </p><p>He bought a copy and his feet guided him to a place he knew too well, a place he was forbidden to go in. </p><p> </p><p>
  <em> "For Baekhyun Byun and Taylor Miller, the ceremony was held in The Plaza Hotel on…” </em>
</p><p> </p><p>He stopped reading for a second. Was he dreaming? </p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>Under the rain, Chanyeol tries not to fall on his knees and cry until his eyes burn, until death pities him and finally ends his unbearable agony. Many times he wondered if all of that was real. What if he'd never really met Baekhyun? And the whole story was fictitious, a pitiful creation of his brain to keep him alive.</p><p> </p><p>With a deep pain he could no longer endure, Chanyeol pulled out his phone for the last time. </p><p> </p><p><em><strong> To: Baekhyun.</strong><br/></em> <em> Please… come back to me. </em></p><p> </p><p>No response.</p><p> </p><p><em><strong> To: Baekhyun.</strong> </em> <em><br/></em> <em> Please </em></p><p> </p><p>This time, Chanyeol gets his only and last reply.</p><p> </p><p><em> <strong> From: Baekhyun</strong><br/></em> <em>Stop. I don't want to see you ever again. </em></p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>